Interbike 2010: Light & Motion focus on commuters

35 lumen for $100? DiNotte does 120 lumen for $149.

From the moment this light was introduced, I was very excited about it – when I saw one on the shelf, I grabbed it instantly.
However it will be going back. Light output is excellent, you would be VERY visible with this. (it blows away my usual three: 2x Fleas and a Skink – those lights each have a very narrow hot spot). Anyway the Vis 180 has four modes ( some slow pulsing, and at least one solid) but no fast blinking/pulsing. It literally will light a dark room if you use it inside, very wide light coverage. But the flaws… the mounting strap is far too short. It’s probably great on 27.2, but it will just barely fit my 31.6 seatpost when you loop the rubber through as designed, which makes it quite awkward to put off/on – a longer length would be easier to get your fingers around. It will not fit my wife’s aero seatpost (Kuota) at all. If they were smart, they would have included a longer strap which you would trim to length. If they were really nice, they would include two straps, with holes set at slightly different/staggered lengths for different installation circumstances so you get the best tension regardless of what you strap it to. I guess you could shim something underneath the one strap if you are in between holes. With regards to the aero seatpost, I even tried improvising with things I had lying around. The L&M bracket cannot be used with zip ties, because the tie would prevent you closing the light to remove it! Maybe if you used those release-able zip ties from the hardware store (or cut your zip tie each time). Velcro straps might work but would have to be quite slim to fit the slots (and you risk your shorts). It might be an improvement if they instead had hooks/flanges on each side of the light and just used an O-ring around the seatpost? If you leave the bracket on the post, you need sufficient height ABOVE it to slide the light up to slide it in/out. This means if you have a shorter seatpost, a curved or setback seatpost … you may have to remove the whole bracket when you want to remove the light. Again “if they were nice” they would include some kind of rubber to work with thin/sharp edged aero seatposts (the Garmin rubber wedge that comes with the cadence sensor isn’t bad). The bronze colour was a bizarre choice. The finish seems like the colour may flake or abrade, mine looks imperfect at the edges and I have never even gone for a ride with it! The micro-USB was another bizarre choice. The bracket that lets you adjust the angle only gives you discrete increments, which is ok, but I wonder about the long term survival of this arm if you ride rough surfaces that would jar the extended light around. Cobbles anyone? In short it doesn’t have the greatest mounting flexibility. While they say you could clip it to a bag, you certainly would not clip it to clothing. The power button feels rather vague in operation, no distinct click:click:click like some other lights. Which is fine unless you operate the light while riding and need to feel it. All in all, not a bad light, just not perfect for my needs and for the money it has to be. The absolute killer for me is that it won’t fit the aero seatpost and the thought of it flying into the spokes if mounted on the seatstays means it’s going back to the shop. Hope this helps, and I’ll be interested in the BikeRumor review later!

Red – you are spot on with your comments. Found the same issues and alerted L&M. Mounting strap does just barely fit around my 31,2 seatpost but actually I wanted to mount the 180 below the seat clamp but this was not possible as the strap is too short and also the mount too big. I would also like to be able to use a cable tie to be safe but this is not possible as one needs to close the unit completely before it will pop out of the mount so it can be recharged. I can no longer use a saddle bag as the 180 takes up the space – (previous blackburn was mounted below the seat clamp).